Sydney to get its first drive-through Christmas tree farm

John Cappello has two types of clients. There's the family that spends three hours waiting for the kids to pick out the perfect Christmas tree. Then there's the reluctant lone-wolf husband, sent by the powers-that-be to bring home a gem.

"He's generally not as interested," Mr Cappello says. "He just points to one and it goes on the back of the ute."

To that end, the Cappello brothers are creating Australia's first drive-through Christmas tree farm, which they intend to have operational for next year. The infrastructure is well and truly in place: Willy's Christmas Tree Farm in Box Hill, founded by John's brother Will, is by his estimate the largest in the Sydney basin. It has 20,000 trees at various stages of a four- or five-year growth cycle, and the brothers expect to sell almost 3000 trees this year, mostly in the coming fortnight.

"The first two weeks of December is really the season," Mr Cappello says. "A lot of people put up their tree on the first of December as a tradition."

Christmas tree plantations dot the landscape of Sydney's west, with farms in Kemps Creek, Dural and Duffys Forest. Trees are also commonly available from hardware stores or Scout groups.

But it's a family affair at Willy's 14-year-old farm, with both men's children (seven in total) helping out by dispensing lollies, processing sales or driving tractors during the December rush. Business is growing at 10 per cent to 15 per cent a year, as more young families settle down in the city's north west. It's the smell of a genuine conifer pine that persuades people to dump the plastic imitations, Mr Cappello says. "Once they've had a real tree they never go back."

Trees range from four to 14 feet and start at $40. Will Cappello advises buyers they have a four-hour window to get the felled tree into a bucket of water at home. He recommends re-cutting another half inch off the stump to remove any "sap barrier" that might have formed during the journey, and installing the tree in a cool spot rather than in direct sunlight. "They will drink a lot of water in the first week, so you've got make sure you maintain that water supply daily," he says.